Begum Kulsoom Nawaz passes away in London

LONDON: Begum Kulsoom Nawaz, the wife of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, passed away here on Tuesday after battling cancer. Her brother-in-law, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif, and her son, Hussain Nawaz, confirmed that the former first lady breathed her last at a clinic in London.

Begum Kulsoom is survived by her husband and four children; Maryam, Asma, Hassan, and Hussain.

The cancer-stricken wife of Sharif was under treatment at London’s Harley Street Clinic since June 2017. She was placed on life support last night as her health deteriorated.

Sources at the clinic said she had developed a complication in her lungs. “She had been responding well without the ventilator until last night,” the sources said.

She received her early education from Lahore’s Madrassa-tul-Banat and later enrolled at the Lady Griffin High School. For her undergraduate studies, she attended the Former Christian College in Lahore, and then completed a masters at the Punjab University. She was still studying when she married Nawaz Sharif, the son of a businessman, in 1971.

Begum Kulsoom became Pakistan's first lady thrice; from 1990 to 1993, from 1997 to 1999, and from 2013 to 2017.

In September 2017, Begum Kulsoom, who was under treatment at this time, won the by-election from NA-120 Lahore, with her campaign being run by her daughter Maryam.

Begum Kulsoom to be laid to rest in Pakistan

The Sharif family has confirmed that Begum Kulsoom's body will be brought back to Pakistan and she will be laid to rest at Jati Umra in Lahore.

The Harley Street Clinic has issued a certificate of death or free from infection (FFI) certificate since Begum Kulsoom's body will be flown out of the United Kingdom.

After receiving the certificates, her family will register the death in a registrar office in the local Westminster Council. The coroner will then issue an out-of-England order, after which the body will be taken to Pakistan, sources said.

Her family will instruct a funeral director today and the body will then be moved to a local mortuary, where it will be kept until the coroner issues the certificate, sources added. The funeral director will be responsible for keeping the body.

Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said he was deeply saddened about her passing. The foreign minister tweeted the Pakistani High Commission in London had been instructed to facilitate the bereaved family in all possible ways.